06 April 2009
Authors of Young-Adult Books Reflect on Issues of Race — Part One
Sherri L. Smith discusses the price of racial “passing”
Part one of a two-part series
Does race matter? The concept of a “post-racial” society is popular, but America’s youth, lacking memories of racial segregation and integration, offer unique perspectives. To capture a snapshot of those views, America.gov posed questions to two authors of young-adult books about issues they explore in their work. In part one, author Sherri L. Smith, who recently published her fourth novel, Flygirl, comments on two topics she tackles in her books. Her first novel, Lucy the Giant, was selected for the 2003 Best Books for Young Adults list by the young adult division of the American Library Association.
Question: Do you think the notion of “passing” to determine one’s identity is a thing of the past?
Smith: Passing is a theme of my novel Flygirl, about a black girl who passes for white to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II. I once might have thought of passing as something out of history. However, in working on this book, I examined my life — was there any instance in which I had passed, if not racially, then in some other way? When the book came out, I wrote a post for a young-adult writing blog in which I explored what it means to surrender part of oneself in race, religion, sexual orientation or other aspect. I put to my readers the questions I had asked myself:
Now, some of you are thinking, “I could never do such a thing.” Those of us who believe we are too righteous, too proud, too much ourselves to pass as anything other — what are we lying about? Where are we passing?
The question was greeted by virtual silence. It was days before anyone posted more than an “Hmm, interesting” comment. Then confessions appeared. Readers who thought they couldn’t identify realized they had been passing as Christians when they were agnostic, or pretending to be nonreligious when they were devout. Some had used fluency with Spanish to pass as Latin because they belonged to a certain school club. Passing was a social negotiation, to make life a little easier. It saved them time and trouble. They had not stopped to think whether it had also cost them something.
The most moving confession came from a woman who e-mailed the site rather than air her story in public. Until reading the post, she had forgotten that her family had hidden their religion when she was a child because her town was prejudiced against it. When her family moved to a more diverse city, she was thrust into a religion to which she felt no connection. While it finally was “safe” for her parents to worship as they chose, she was a stranger to that faith. And that is one of the costs of passing.
As for the social effect, it’s a double-edged sword. Areas closed to some groups might benefit from having them as members. If passing is the only way to get a foot in the door, it might be unpleasant, but it is a beginning. In a way, it’s the ultimate walking of a mile in another person’s shoes. The trouble is never being allowed to take those shoes off without being reviled, by yourself or by others. Too often, the passers are punished — sometimes fatally so — for “fooling” people if they risk removing their disguise. Over time, the actual need — perceived need is another story — for some types of passing may have diminished, but clearly it exists today.
Q: Do you have a vision of a post-racial society or does it matter whether people identify or are identified by race?
A: Several years ago, on the first wave of the “multicultural” revolution, I remember seeing the cover of a magazine showing a digitally created “human of the future,” a multiethnic blend of tawny-skinned beauty based on attributes from all known races in proportion to the population. The magazine proclaimed we were headed toward this vision as the world blended into a global village. While that might be the case, if race no longer is a discriminating factor, then something else will be. In my next book I explore a world blended ethnically, but segregated on a biological level beneath the color of the skin. I believe it is human nature to categorize. Discernable differences, like skin tone or language, make classification easy. Whether we address those differences as negative or positive, however, is a choice.
Great strength can come from cultural identity, whether defined by race or ethnicity, or gender, or other attribute — as can strife, if we allow our differences to chafe and separate us. That said, I believe humanity as a whole, and the United States specifically, has benefited from the “best” their component cultures offer. As the world becomes more homogenized, it’s hard to say what will be gained and what will be lost. Sameness hardly seems like an attractive goal, but would it be if it somehow brought about world peace? We’ve been blending racial groups since the dawn of man and have yet to achieve the beige citizen depicted on the cover of that magazine. So, for the time being, I believe an appreciation for and an acceptance of our differences will lead to our success as a people.
